Ghost Tales Of Eyam – The Village of The Plague!

This weekends explore was of Eyam in Derbyshire with Fright Nites Thank you for the offer for me to tag along.

Eyam village is also known as the plague village. The plague was brought to the village in 1665 when a tailor received some materials from a London supplier. The parcel which the tailor received contained fleas on a piece of cloth which was the carrier of the plague and unknowing to them they hung it up to dry.

George Viccars, the tailor’s assistant who hung the infected cloth, was the first of 260 people to die during the outbreak in the village.

The disease spread like wildfire across the village. William Mompesson, the town’s rector, watched as panicked villagers begun to pack up their things and prepared to flee the plague town.

On 24 June 1666, Mompesson called Eyam’s residents together and begged them to quarantine themselves so that the disease couldn’t spread into neighbouring towns, what was amazing was that the whole town vowed to sacrifice their lives to stop the disease spreading and claiming even more lives.

By August the disease had took many lives – mothers buried their children and husbands buried their wife’s. Outsiders stood from the hill to scared to come to close but some would leave supplies for the village in the return for coins which was disinfected by vinegar these would then be left at Mompesson’s Well and the Boundary Stone.

Holes was put into the stone for the coins

With its sad history it has many ghostly tales to tell, has you walk round the village it is quite peaceful and feels quite sad but many visitors believe that the village is haunted by those affected by the plague and the reports from visitors is that has they walk past the graves they encounter chills……

A skull and cross bones was often displayed on graves to warn us of our own morbidity.

Over the years I have heard stories of paranormal investigators experiencing a negative energy here. What or who they may be experiencing isn’t for sure and often people may ask in a village with such a sad tale why would there be something negative there?

Well, the village has more of a history to it then just the plague.

The village has actually been subjected to many mysterious deaths over the years. Records show that a number of people committed suicide here in a spot during a short period of time within the village but there is question marks over if this was really suicide or if there is a bigger tale to tell here!

During the months these was recorded, Eyam and 2 surrounding villages had the exactly same type of incidents all being blamed to suicide. These was either people had jumped off a nearby edge or people was found with their throats slit!

Fright Nites normally have a historian who attends there events but sadly he couldn’t make it this particular evening but they told me some of the known haunts that is alleged to surround this area.

The Plague Cottage

200 years after the plague, what is named as the plague cottage now, the owner at the time was experiencing some strange occurences within the cottage which he couldn’t explain. It had got so bad that he look for methods to do in order to see if it would somewhat calm the activity down.

One Christmas, he tried to burn some holly – why he chose to do this its unsure because burning holy at Christmas time was deemed by many as bad luck. Has he burnt this, he heard rattles and groans coming from the cottages chimney, he pulled the metal plate down and out fell a bundle. Unsure what it was and scared it may be linked to the bundle sent up from London, 200 years previously that was infected, he put it on the fire and left it to burn. It is stated that after this no more spooky activity occurred!

Eyam Hall

Eyam Hall is reported to be haunted by a little girl named Sarah Mills. She was a local servant girl who it was said had drowned in the village well.

Another sighting here is of a man, previous owners have had a number of incidents in one of the rooms, where it got so bad they decided to lock it off to never enter it again.

The historian for Eyam who does work for Fright Nights did see a apparition outside Eyam Hall, he states that the apparition was of a man, who appeared angry and who then slowly disappeared.

The Stables

The current owner has reported seeing shadows regularly and hearing bangs and footsteps.

The Stocks

At the front of Eyam Hall are some village stocks. There are two holes for arms and two for legs and was last used in the 19th century. Stocks were traditionally used to punish people who were guilty of petty crime and the stocks in Eyam are a reminder of the harsh discipline given out in centuries gone by. Investigators have reported a number of spooky goings on around this area and is the spot where the local historian saw the apparition of the man as mentioned above.

Other Places of interest here

This area is also where 7 human remains was found.Over the course of eight days in August 1667, Elizabeth Hancock, a villager,lost her six children and her husband. Covering her mouth with a handkerchief against the stench of decay, she dragged their bodies to a nearby field and buried them.